The Flash: Should You Run to See It?

Before I get started, I have to address the elephant in the room: Ezra Miller.  In case you didn't know, Miller has had an...interesting few years, to say the least.  They've committed multiple crimes with allegations including grooming a minor, choking a fan, running a cult,  and throwing a chair at a woman.  Most of this happened in 2022  The worst part is that these are just a few of the crimes they committed.  This would be a very long review if I were to tell you everything.  Many people began to wonder what was going to happen to The Flash since it's hard to sell a movie where the lead actor is a criminal.  The main thing audiences wanted was for the movie to be cancelled, but this thing cost about $200 million, there was no way in hell it was getting canned, especially with all of the problems Warner Bros had been having.  Oddly enough, I get it.  There were many people who worked on it and it's sort of unfair that they be punished for the actions of one person.  Obviously, I think Ezra should be held accountable and never play this character (or act) again.  What I didn't count on was the praise this movie was going to get.  It screened a few months early at CinemaCon and many higher ups, including James Gunn (who's now in charge of the DC Universe), went as far as to call it one of the best superhero movies of all time.  Even Tom Cruise  called the director to praise it.  On top of that, there were free fan screenings a few weeks ago.  The thing is, I get it.  DC (and Warner Bros for that matter) hasn't had a big hit in a while and this is ultimately a business.  Money needs to be made.  I just wish that people associated with the movie would stop praising Miller all of the time.  Director Andy Muschietti went on to say that no one can replace Ezra if there's a sequel.  I guess the show that's been on for almost a decade doesn't count.  To add insult to injury, Miller attended the premiere as if nothing even happened.  They took pictures, gave a few interviews, and even had a little speech.  It's all just a very bad look.  So, after all of this, is The Flash worth it?  That's what I'm here to tell you.

The Flash is directed by Andy Muschietti and stars Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, and Kiersy Clemons.  After discovering he has the ability to time travel Barry Allen A.K.A. the Flash (Miller) goes back in time to save his mom (Maribel Verdú) from being murdered.  As a result, he completely messes up the timeline and creates a world without superheroes.  Now, he must fix his mistake to save the future.  With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

So is The Flash one of the best comic book movies ever made? No.  Not even close.  It's not even the best comic book movie released this month (Across the Spider-Verse I'm looking at you).  It's a mediocre superhero movie.  However, there are a few things that I did like about it.  Ezra Miller, despite all of the crimes, does a pretty good job as the Flash, well at least one of them (more on that in a bit).  I've always liked Miller's portrayal of the Scarlet Speedster, even though we really didn't get a ton of it in the movies.  When we first see him, all he wants to do is help his dad (Ron Livingston) get out of jail.  He had been wrongfully accused of killing Barry's mom.  It's sort of funny because, in the beginning, the movie does a good job of showing that being a superhero can be a little annoying for him.  He's all set to go to trial for his dad and he gets a call from Batman (Ben Affleck) to help save a hospital.  That's why I liked the most about this movie: Flash just wants to save his mom.  It's a good concept that does have a pretty good emotional payoff.  I also really liked Sasha Calle as Supergirl.  Unlike her cousin, she doesn't have an optimistic view of humanity, which makes sense since she's been a prisoner her whole life.  It was cool seeing her arc over the course of the movie.  Hopefully, Calle can come back to play this character again.  The first act or so was also pretty good, particularly (most) of the opening action sequence.  I liked seeing Flash interact with Batman.  It gave us a taste of what this universe could've been if the studio hadn't kept meddling in the previous movies.  The main thing that I dug about this film were the concepts it had.  Towards the end of the movie, there's a conflict that happens that really should've been the whole movie, but it sadly gets ignored for the multiverse angle, which has just become so tiring recently.  

As I mentioned earlier, I thought Miller mostly did a good job playing Barry Allen.  The reason I said most was because there are two Barrys in this movie: One from the present and one from the past.  Past Barry (or PB) is just downright annoying.  What makes this even worse is that we spend most of the movie with him.  The Flash is pretty much a buddy cop film, except the buddies are the same people.  The movie tries to explain that he's supposed to be annoying on purpose, but it's still obnoxious.  PB has this awful laugh throughout the entire thing that is supposed to be funny.  The only problem is that it's terrible.  It just took me out of the movie.  He's downright infuriating.  A big selling point of The Flash was that Michael Keaton was coming back as Batman.  I've only seen the first Tim Burton movie he was in and, for me, it was fine.  I don't have this huge attachment to him like everyone else does.  In this movie, Keaton looks like he's just there to get his paycheck and go home.  He looks completely bored.  He's pretty much just relegated to saying his catchphrases from the first one and fighting.  There's a part where he comes in and he says, "Yeah," pauses for a while and then says, "I'm Batman."  Remember?  He said that thing from that old thing you liked!  This Batman isn't a character, he's an action figure, just there to kick butt and spew lines that you like.  The worst part is, he doesn't really do anything.  Going in, I thought Bruce was going to be a pretty major player in this movie, but he's not.  He's just sort of...there.  Another character who got sidelined was Supergirl.  Like Bruce, I thought she was going to be important.  She actually shows up pretty late in the game and doesn't do a lot.   It's a shame how they treated her character.  Michael Shannon also comes back to play Zod from Man of Steel (one of the most underrated comic book movies ever).  You could tell he wanted to be anywhere else.  On the technical side, this movie is awful to look at.  The CGI is horrendous.  You thought Marvel was having problems?  That's nothing compared to this.  It makes Thor: Love and Thunder's visuals look like Avatar: The Way of Water.  It is inexcusable.  The director said in an interview that the effects are supposed to look like that.  In an interview he said, "The idea, of course, is...we are in the perspective of the Flash.  Everything is distorted in terms of light and textures.  We enter this 'waterworld' which is basically being in Barry's POV.  It was part of the design so if it looks a little weird to you that was intended."  Sure it was.  Ok, let's say that was the case (which I don't believe at all), the effects are still terrible.  There's one scene where Barry is talking to PB and you can tell that he's completely CG.  The big end action sequence that's been in all of the trailers is ridiculously bland.  It's a big fight in a bland field, with bland CG characters fighting each other.  Now, I have always thought that I could excuse bad CG if the the story is good (I Am Legend is proof of that), but, here, I couldn't.  Not when so much of the story relies on the visual effects.  To make matters even worse, there are cameos of actors who have passed away.  "Ben," you may ask, "how is that possible?"  Well they do it by using CG in the most grotesque way possible.  They looked like Playstation 3 cutscenes.  It was extremely disrespectful and done for people in the audience to point and go, "I know that."  I hate that the industry is doing this and I don't care if they got the family's permission.  My friend and I actually squirmed in our seats when we saw it.  It's wrong.  What worries me even more is that the director had full reign of who he wanted to appear in this segment.  Is there no moral compass?  Some people may defend it as honoring the actor, but it really isn't.  Show an old photo or something, but don't use some CG abomination to bring back people who have passed away.  I could go on forever about how I feel about this but, for the sake of you guys, I won't.  As I mentioned earlier, the concepts in this movies are interesting.  The execution is another story.  The perfect example is the last ten minutes or so.  There's a character that shows up that was hinted at throughout the movie.  This person was much more interesting than what the movie decided to focus on.  I can't go into it too much because it's a spoiler, but it would've been such a unique story.  Instead, what we get is a huge corporate product that's just a really poor nostalgia trip.  There's a scene at the end that was truly heartfelt and I actually liked it quite a bit.  My only problem is that the rest of the movie was mediocre.  It was almost as if the writers had a beginning and an end, but nothing in between.  There are also attempts at humor, which is a crapshoot.  When it works, it's pretty funny.  When it doesn't, it's pretty bad.  Most of this comes from PB.  I'm not going to even try to explain the time travel for you.  For some reason, since Barry messed with the past, Michael Keaton's Batman ends up in the Man of Steel universe.  Why? I don't know. The movie tries to explain it, but it lost me.  Oh, and for some reason, Batman knows all about time travel.  That's where we're at.

To wrap everything up The Flash is fine, if not mediocre.  Miller did a good job as one of the Barrys, the first act was pretty good, Sasha Calle did a pretty good job as Supergirl, and the movie had some unique concepts.  The problems heavily outweigh the positives though.  Past Barry is extremely annoying, Michael Keaton has nothing to do but say old lines, Supergirl is sidelined, the CG is downright awful, the cameos are morally bankrupt, the humor is very hit or miss, and the time travel is a bit screwy.  This is not one of the best superhero movies of all time, but rather an extremely mediocre movie that sometimes has flashes (see what i did?) of interesting ideas.  If anything, this gets me kind of nervous for the DC Universe's Batman movie, which Muschietti is directing.  I honestly don't know what some of the critics have been watching.  Go watch anything else in theaters.  Just wait till streaming to watch this.  If I were to rate it, I'd give The Flash a 5.5-6/10.  There is an after credits scene if you want to stick around for it, but if you don't, you're not really missing a ton.